Best ribs in Honolulu

Honolulu's best ribs

With the triumphant return of the McRib at McDonald's, I got a hankering for barbecue ribs. But although there are hundreds of Honolulu restaurants with "BBQ" in their names, most don't serve real barbecue.

Whether it's Kansas City, Memphis, North Carolina or Texas-style, good barbecue has three primary qualities — a smoky flavor from cooking with wood chips or sometimes charcoal; a great sauce; and fall-of-the-bone tenderness from slow cooking over indirect heat. With this in mind, I went on a quest to find the barbecue in town.

About Ed Morita

Ed Morita now works as the pastry chef at Off The Wall Craft Desserts & Kitchen. Previously, he spent more than a decade working as a pastry chef at some of the country's premiere resorts and restaurants, including the Halekulani Hotel, The Greenbrier Resort & Spa in West Virginia, Bay Harbor Yacht Club in Michigan, Longhi’s Restaurant in Honolulu, and recently Highway Inn Kaka‘ako.

Has anyone tried the ribs at Pacific Soul? I will eventually, if I ever get past wanting the fried chicken and waffles lol. I was sitting in there yesterday with the sweet smell of BBQ sauce coming from another table as I was eating my kalbi tacos and wondered what their ribs must be like.

To a lot of BBQ purists, true BBQ is tender but does not fall of the bone. They call that overcooked. To me, so long as they are low and slow with a nice pink smoke ring and smoky taste (I prefer heavy smoke), I'm in heaven. Mahalo for making me all hungry ;)

Daaaang, Ed! I've been waiting for this gallery to come out. How much were Joe Aloha's ribs? I've been meaning to go there since the Quiksilver party, but now I guess I gotta wait some more because they're gonna be crowded after this. Sad face.

@Melissa808 Yeah I've been meaning to try Joe Aloha's too ever since I saw a review of it on the Tasty Island blog http://bit.ly/amtD3h but never got around to it yet. Like you said the secret's out now. 7 bucks for those ribs is a bargain!